A Little News

We all know that everyone can shoot a picture. It is, after all, pretty simple to press a button. All of us who make a living doing this know that it is a bit more complex than that and that there is a huge gulf between a photographer and a snap shooter. There are several things that create that gulf aside from the obvious one which is talent. My friend Jonathan Palmer whom I featured yesterday has a friend at the Lexington Herald Leader who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He has done a series of pictures and put them on his web site that he shot with his Iphone.

Now that is just ridiculous because his Iphone shots are better than what some folks are doing with gear costing many thousands of dollars. It just goes to show that a great shooter is a great shooter regardless of the gear he is using so put away the Canon vs Nikon debate and just focus on what works for you, even if it is an Iphone! The focus of this post and this series of posts is on helping us all get better fast so lets take the next step. Fortunately it doesn’t require the use of an Iphone.

One of the legends of photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson pretty much coined the whole concept of the decisive moment. He is legendary for many things but this is perhaps his greatest legacy and it is the one thing that can make you better in a real hurry. Concentrate on THE MOMENT. Although I don’t find THE MOMENT in every assignment I am convinced that every photo assignment has the one moment when everything comes together. This is even true of the mundane stuff. This is true of portraits, of ribbon cuttings, of sports events, fires, natural disasters and kids playing in the street. The key is staying mentally sharp throughout the coverage of an event so you don’t miss the moment. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have missed the photo because I saw it happening but I was not ready. The camera was not at my eye or I had the wrong lens or I was just not paying close attention.

Sometimes just the slightest little change in expression makes the difference in a great picture and just another shot. If you really want to get better fast, dig your heels in and get determined to find that moment in every job you shoot. Here are some tips to help you do this.

First, keep your gear ready at all times. Have the exposure mode set properly, and if you are shooting manual, make sure your exposure settings are correct. Think enough in advance to know whether a long lens or a short lens is the one to use. If you are using strobes, make sure your batteries are hot and ready.

Second, maintain your mental focus on what you are doing. That doesn’t mean to be rude to folks who come up to talk to you but keep your conversations as short as possible so you can focus on why you are there. The other side of this coin is you have to not allow yourself to fall asleep mentally and this is tougher than being distracted by people talking to you. I almost missed a very important photo while covering an awards banquet one evening. Two of our most prominent citizens, both over ninety, one black and one white, got up and danced together briefly. The photo was a metaphor for these two pillars of the community and symbolized much more than the actual event itself meant. I had been just sitting at a table thinking how I wished they would just move it along and get this over with. Then they started to dance. Fortunately, people around me began reacting and I was able to get a couple of frames off before they sat back down. Hey, ninety plus citizens don’t typically spend a whole lot of time dancing. Anyway, I got the shot and it now hangs in a new elementary school named for both of them. Ironically, both of them passed away not long after that and they died within hours of one another. Life is amazing and we can shoot it if we are alert.

Third, and this is a result of the first two, predict what is going to happen and where it will happen and be ready. This increases your chances of a great photo exponentially. I know this sounds difficult but you would be surprised how easy this actually is when you are mentally awake and tracking with the event you are covering. Everything you shoot has a flow to it. When you are in the flow you can make nice photos with relative ease. It is tough when you just want to get it over with or when you are rushed to shoot and move on to the next job. Find the flow of the event and go with it. You will find even boring events more interesting and much easier to shoot. As you develop this skill in the boring events you will find it becomes automatic when things are really hopping.

About the photos: The portrait is of an outgoing county commission who had served faithfully for years but in his last year had run into some stormy waters. I though this frame captured his spirit and that final turbulent year very well. Nikon D2H with an 80-200 f2.8 and lit with a single monolight fired using it’s optical slave. I used a very low powered speedlight to trigger the monolight. The second photo is from an assignment on a guy who has taught in the same Sunday School class for fifty years. The little girl seemed unimpressed by his trick of winning the kids over with slices of apple. This was shot available light with a Nikon D1 (what was I thinking?) and a 14mm f2.8 Sigma lens which I find impossible to focus. The final photo is from a golf tournament putt off. The lady looking away is one of the competitors reacting to the crowds reaction to her opponent’s putt. I shot this with a 17-35mm f2.8 on a D2H and wished I had used some fill flash.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

When I was a young photojournalist, I religiously avoided shooting with the normal lens. In fact, I did not really own a normal lens. I had a 55mm micro but I never used it for my everyday assignments. I used my 24mm and my 180mm all the time. These were the most extreme lenses I had at that time.

Fast forward to the present day and I am still inclined to shoot with the extremes in my bag. However, it is not really avoiding the 50mm that I am talking about; although, I still have an allergic reaction to that lens. What I am really talking about is avoiding your normal. If you normally are a wide angle shooter, stretch yourself and shoot with long lenses every time you can. If you are normally a mid-range lens guy, then go to either extreme but get out of you middle ground. If you shoot mostly with the long glass, break out the wide angle and shoot as much as possible with it.

Breaking out of your normal routine literally forces you to see differently. It forces you to visualize photos that you were not even thinking about in your normal shooting mode. You have to think differently. You have to shoot differently. You have to leave your comfort zone and step outside of that proverbial box. This is good. Change is good. What will eventually happen to you is growth. You will grow as a shooter. You will get better. You can still get your money shots shooting the way you always have but after you have your safety shot, break your mold and go to an extreme.

Lighting is another area where you can fall into a routine, otherwise known as a rut. If you normally light everything, shoot a couple of projects documentary style and use no supplemental lighting. If you normally shoot everything available, jump the fence and do some stylized lighting on a few jobs. What you will find is that you will actually learn to see light better. You will learn to see natural light with new eyes. You will learn that lighting an assignment gives it an entirely new look.

Eventually you will learn to blend light in ways that are absolutely seamless. Mixing natural light and some form of supplemental light is a skill that is more valuable than just about any other you can acquire as a photographer. Unless you are a strict documentary journalist, just about every other form of photojournalism, and photography in general, require good lighting skills to advance your career.

When you break out of whatever your normal is, you will discover something has happened to you. You will have gotten better. You will have grown. You will look back at the way you used to shoot and wonder how you could have been stuck there. Your work will be full of a new energy. You will be reworking your portfolio or whatever material you use to promote yourself. Mostly you will just wonder how you had been stuck in normal mode and had not even realized it.

About the photo: For this photo of a brother/sister golf tandem, I broke several of my conventions. I used a wide lens which is not really my strength and I used a two light set up to augment the daylight. I also used an unexpected perspective on the photo. Essentially, I had a thirty minute drive to the assignment which was at the kids’ home. I used my imagination to come up with something out of my normal range and tried that first. It worked great but I also had a fall back photo just in case.

Photo copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Okay, maybe this one isn’t so fast unless you are one of those people who are instinctive photographers. I am not one of those truly gifted individuals. They simply stick a camera in front of their face and magical things happen in the viewfinder. For the rest of us, getting better is an exercise much like growing. It doesn’t happen all at once and it sometimes involves a lot of repetition and hard work. This is certainly one of those areas for me.

Layering is a visual term that basically means that you are creating various layers of visual interest in the frame. It can be done with lenses, composition and light and sometimes all three of them combined. There can be a couple of layers or there can be many layers. Frankly, in the newspaper business, layering is not always well received by folks who deal in words until it is fully explained. Too often, we simply want a photo that slaps the reader in the face and yells, “Hey, wake up and look at this!”

A layered photo can do this but as often as not a well layered image invites the viewer in deeper and deeper and allows him to stimulate various parts of his visual pallet much as a fine wine does for the aficionado. This is something that takes practice and patience to develop and patience is not one of my finest qualities. That means I have to consciously work at this. It is then easier to work on layering in situations where I am controlling everything such as the environmental portrait.

Now lets look at some photos and techniques. There are more than I am showing so don’t limit yourself to just these techniques. First, and to me, most obviously, use a wide angle lens and frame the subject using a framing device. This first photo is from the Downtown Criterium bike race in Decatur. There are three distinct layers in this image beginning with the bicycle tire which is the framing device. The second layer is actually the primary focus of the image which is the bikers followed by the third layer which is the buildings that form the background. This is the easiest technique to use and it is probably the one we all learned in photo school.

The next photo is one creating layers using the arrangement of the cheerleaders and their varying expressions. Theses two devices, the varying expressions and the foreground to background relationship of the way the girls are positioned, draws you in and invites you to look for a while seeing the varying degrees of reaction to whatever may be going on on the basketball court. The foreground element is dominant and it fills the bill for newspapers because it provides an immediate hook. Then the viewer slips into the photo to see the various reactions the girls are having. This is certainly not as common a situation for most of us but it works great when it is available.

The next photo combines two layering techniques, framing and light. The use of the gentleman’s hands serves as both a layer and a framing device leading you to his face. The lighting creates the second and third layers of the photo and helps center the viewers attention on his face. As a side note, this man was one of the first to go ashore on D-day in 1944 on Utah Beach in Normandy. He was a combat engineer whose job was to disable any mines and clear beach obstructions all while under fire. His company fared well unlike many others who were killed in their boats or on the beaches, especially those who landed on Omaha Beach, the other beach assigned to U.S. forces. I really liked this man and admired his courage.

Finally, the last photo is another using a combination of framing and lighting to lead the viewer in. This was shot while the Governor of Alabama was on a campaign stop in Decatur. I used a wide lens and an ambient light underexposure combined with flash to create the funnel effect that leads you to the Governor. My oldest son was with me this day and he subbed admirably for a moving light stand. I just told him where to go and who to point the flash at and we shot several varieties of the Governor moving through the crowd.

Now you have enough to get started so go knock your editors out with your new layering skills!

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

In the last post on backgrounds, I approached the subject of backgrounds with the idea of eliminating distractions that hurt your photos. Now, let’s look at how to make your background work for you. We don’t have total control over the background in most photojournalism situations. In most breaking situations you don’t have the time to even worry about the background. When you have time to work a photo you should really try to get the background to help tell the story.

Sometimes you just get lucky, or unlucky, with the background; however, like the old saying goes, luck favors the prepared. When you first approach a situation look at backgrounds. What will you shoot your subject against, even in an action situation. Is there a background that will contribute to the photo and also, is there a background you want to avoid? This is also a good time to figure out the best lens choice. Now, when the moment happens, you are prepared.

I have three photos with to show you here. The first is a stand alone photo of a kid fishing. I was able to make use of a high embankment and get above him which allowed me to isolate him against the water which was also reflecting the sunset clouds. By the way, this photo is also strobed. I set an SB8oo on a light stand and put it in the edge of the lake to give me a little bit of separation and a nice little kicker. I used a D2h and an 80-200 lens and fired the strobe using a Pocket Wizard set. Adding the strobe allowed me to go a little under on the water without losing detail in the boy.

The next photo is from a mud volleyball tournament held every year in Athens, Alabama to raise money for the elderly and homebound. I was waiting for someone to go header into the mud hoping that they would come up facing me. That never happened but when this girl did her own version of a face plant I was able to use the people watching to get a nice photo where the background helps tell the story. You can’t see the front of the girl but you can see the other people reacting to what they see. This photo was shot available light with a D2h and a 17-35mm lens.

The last photo is also a D2h and 17-35mm shot. Decatur hosts the NAIA National Softball Championship Tournament and it is one of the highlights of my year. I love to shoot that tournament. This was the championship day and I actually had to leave before the game ended to go shoot something else. Hoping that something would still be going on when I got back, I hustled through the job and found that the tournament had ended by the time I returned. Fortunately for me there was still some celebrating going on. The girl hugging her father turned out to be the tournament MVP and her teammates in the background are holding up their championship banner for a photo. I probably could have done no better even if I had been there at the end of the game. The foreground shows the emotion and the background tells you why. I love it when things come together.

When you are out shooting, plan and prepare as much as you can but be prepared for change. Don’t over focus on the background because you run the risk of losing site of the main subject. Keep your eyes open and work your angles and lenses to maximize the background. Some of the time a wide zoom will be appropriate and other times a long zoom will be the better choice. You have to make that determination on the scene. After you have done this for a while, you won’t even be thinking about the background consciously. You will simply develop a “sixth sense” for backgrounds and you will be shooting instinctively.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Let’s talk about getting better fast. Clever how my lead sentence reflects my title isn’t it? Cleverness aside, there are some things you can do to get better in a hurry. Just don’t get so good that you come gunning for my job!

One of the things that separates the greenhorn from the cagey veteran is the way he handles backgrounds. The background of a photo can help, hurt or do nothing at all. When I was a young shooter one of the things that really got me was backgrounds. I was so intent on the main subject that I seldom noticed what was going on in the background. That sometimes still bites me but over the years I have gotten better at watching my backgrounds.

The photos in this post are an example of how the background can either help or hurt. The first shot of the cannon actually firing is a fine moment and I like the picture. The only problem is I can’t look at the photo without seeing those cars in the background. The cars totally ruin the feel of the picture. Were it not for the cars it could be 1864 all over again. (Yes, it is sadly true that in the South we still fight the Civil War and some here feel that we are winning!)

The next photo is just a few seconds later as they gunners swab the breech and smoke has completely obscured the background. Man, where is Matthew Brady? The smoke helps deliver a feeling that is missing in the first photo. The smokes erases the signs that we are in the present day. It also makes a perfectly clean backdrop that allows you to focus on the soldiers.

Most of the time you won’t have any cannon smoke handy to blot out your background. Do not fear, there are a bunch of other ways to handle a messy or distracting background. If you remember seeing the photo by Joe Johnston of the Cal Poly pitcher you will see a very effective use of the low angle to clean up the background. Now that you have the low down, go high angle. This is very effective in shooting sports because it gives you the relatively uncluttered playing surface for a background rather than the distractions of the sidelines or the fans.

Light can also be used to clean up the background. If you use strobes on the main subject, you can usually drop the background down to either deemphasize it or eliminate altogether. A long lens will help you blur a distracting background while the wide angle can be used to deemphasize the background because it creates a very dominant foreground while diminishing the size of objects in the background. There are many techniques for doing this and these are only a few. The main thing is learning to keep backgrounds from becoming a distraction in your pictures.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.